ADOLESCENTS have a new album out!
This news alone is likely to bring tears to the eyes of many early punks and those who were young and rebellious twenty years ago. After five years, it's the band's first new album. A band that has made history. ADOLESCENTS were part of the first and second waves of hardcore and punk rock in the USA. Founded in 1980, they have influenced countless bands but have never achieved the same level of success as Bad Religion, who started in the same founding year.
ADOLESCENTS have always stayed true to themselves and have never held back. Even though the band has gone through several breakups, reunions, and member changes, they have always maintained their own spirit. This is certainly also due to the fact that singers Tony Cadena and Steve Soto have always been there, carrying the band along.
For many, ADOLESCENTS are undoubtedly a cult band and therefore untouchable, as there are few bands from the early punk rock days that have consistently made music and have continued to do so despite, or perhaps because of, their mediocre success. Success is not everything, of course, but when you've been around for 21 years and are no longer a young whippersnapper, success can indeed be motivating.
With “The fastest kid alive“, the band continues their story with familiar needles. They offer melodic mid-tempo punk rock songs that are truly old school. The recording sounds almost as if there are no digital possibilities, but everything is still analog. The focus was not on achieving the fattest sound, but on an honest sound. It is the sound of the band as you know and love it.
The sound may seem foreign to younger generations, but that's how punk was back then. German punk from the 80s doesn't sound much different in terms of recording.
Since I'm no longer 16 and am quite familiar with this sound, it resonates with me and allows me to indulge in one or two memories.
The lyrics are, as one would expect from the band, provocative, political, critical, and very direct by American standards. Starting with “Operation FTW“, where the nations are greeted with which the USA is currently at war or has been, from El Salvador to Pakistan. After so much friendliness, the last two lines hit like slaps in the face:
- Come buy our guns in America
- Come and join our drug war
That would surely make any patriot in America turn red. It hurts!
Or the human “No Child left behind“.
This is tough stuff from Americans for Americans.
But we can also gain a lot from the lyrics for ourselves. It is by no means an album for Americans; it is an album by Americans who walk through the world with open eyes, just as everyone should.
ADOLESCENTS have created a gem with “The fastest kid alive“, which is especially essential for the older generations.
